Bookslut has a sensible/fun idea in launching 'The Daphnes', which annually: "will celebrate the best books of 50 years ago".
The idea being that in the moment literary-prize-choices tend not to reflect lasting value (i.e. they want to: "right the wrongs of the 1964 National Book Awards, which ugh, decided that John Updike's The Centaur was totally the best book of that year").
It gets a bit confusing with some of the translated stuff -- Bernhard's Frost is a nominee, despite first appearing in English translation less than a decade ago -- and other titles come with a lot of baggage by now, too (The Bell Jar for, well, being The Bell Jar ; Tevis' (an underappreciated author in his own right) The Man Who Fell to Earth because of the classic Nicholas Roeg/David Bowie/Rip Torn/Buck Henry film-version). And let's face it, The Group may be a significant novel, but it is not a good one. (Actually the fiction-category -- even without Grass' Dog Years -- is a slam dunk: Hopscotch, no question or debate.)
See also Carolyn Kellogg's report, Bookslut launches the Daphne award: What's the best book of 1963 ?
It gets a bit confusing with some of the translated stuff -- Bernhard's Frost is a nominee, despite first appearing in English translation less than a decade ago -- and other titles come with a lot of baggage by now, too (The Bell Jar for, well, being The Bell Jar ; Tevis' (an underappreciated author in his own right) The Man Who Fell to Earth because of the classic Nicholas Roeg/David Bowie/Rip Torn/Buck Henry film-version). And let's face it, The Group may be a significant novel, but it is not a good one. (Actually the fiction-category -- even without Grass' Dog Years -- is a slam dunk: Hopscotch, no question or debate.)
See also Carolyn Kellogg's report, Bookslut launches the Daphne award: What's the best book of 1963 ?